Anselm Hollo (1934-2013)

Tom Raworth on Hollo in The Independent (obit Jan. 31, 2013)

Anselm Hollo PennSound page
includes a section of The Empress Hotel Poems (1:30): MP3

Go through my things
   god knows what you'll find. When I'm not here.
I'm not here, in this poem
I'm in another room, writing praises
            of their loveliness and terror
the ones that dance through my mind
        not endlessly, but to be one at one
                               with them
                           I want to be.
                       I want to be one,
                   I want her to be one
              when the voice begins
         she is, and she dances.
I am the voice. I praise
There is
no mind.

from Guests of Space

When you're feeling
about as
bad as your
average|

English translation
of Goethe you must
go see the
Parrot of Penance

and he will
say unto you
"Way around it?"
Way around it?

There's never been
any way around it."

––from Salt Publishing, Braided River: New and Selected Poems 1965-2005.

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I took this picture of Anselm at his CUE reading in 2007, in New York

 

Helsingin Sanomat (the biggest Finnish newspaper), written by one of the editors of the Cultural Section. Hollo is remembered as having been "Finlands link to the Beat Movement in US" (Jan. 31, 2013)
Digital version of this article.